This invention is in the field of integrated circuit manufacture. More particularly, it is in the field of vacuum tools used to manipulate individual semiconductor wafers during manufacture.
During the manufacture of integrated circuits, it is often necessary to pick up and manipulate the individual semiconductor wafers upon which the circuits are fabricated. Various vacuum tools and wands are used for this purpose. The tip of one such vacuum tool is described in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,315, entitled "TIP FOR A VACUUM PIPETTE", the specification of which is incorporated herein for all purposes.
Although the tips described in the referenced patent perform well, there is at least one problem which is encountered during the fabrication of integrated circuits which these tips do not solve. Often during the manufacturing process the wafers become charged with static electricity. Charged wafers attract particles in the workplace having the opposite charge. These particles, if they actually contact the wafer, can damage the circuits being formed on the wafer, causing various malfunctions. Although grounding the vacuum tools is a known technique to avoid this problem, the abrupt static discharge that can occur when a normally grounded vacuum tool comes in contact with a charged wafer can be large enough to cause damage to the circuits. Thus, a need exists for a tip for vacuum tools that permits the discharge of static electricity without damaging the circuits being formed on the wafer.